Hep C doctor shared syringes 'by mistake'

A drug-addicted anaesthetist was like a kid in a candy store with easy access to opiates at his clinic and failed to realise he was syringe-sharing with patients, his barrister says.

Fifty-five women contracted hepatitis C at a Melbourne abortion clinic after the infected doctor, James Latham Peters, reused his syringes on patients.

Defence barrister John Dickinson SC said that after Peters injected himself he intended to replace the syringes with clean ones, but failed to do so.

"He at no stage believed he was using the same syringe on the women that he had used himself, but accepts that he did," Mr Dickinson told the Victorian Supreme Court on Tuesday.

But Justice Terry Forrest said he struggled to believe that proposition.

"It's hard for me to accept that a man as accomplished and intelligent as your client obviously is, had no appreciation whatsoever he was placing these women in danger of injury by his conduct," he told Mr Dickinson.

Peters, 63, has pleaded guilty to 55 counts of negligently causing serious injury, at the Croydon clinic in 2008 and 2009.

He was exposed to drug use after marrying a heroin addict and had become hopelessly addicted to opiates by the mid-90s, the court heard.

Mr Dickinson said it was "mind boggling" that Peters was registered to work as an anaesthetist where he could readily access fentanyl.

"It's a little bit like putting a sugar-addicted child in a candy store and saying, `Behave yourself,'" he said.

Mr Dickinson said Peters had not acted intentionally or recklessly.

He urged Justice Forrest not to be "overwhelmed" by the "very emotional and very powerful" victim evidence delivered in court on Monday.

The prosecution has called for a jail term of between 14 and 16 years and Justice Forrest acknowledged a message needed to be sent to recovering drug addicts working in medicine.

"He pleads guilty to a gross and unjustifiable departure from the standard of care exercised by a reasonable and prudent anaesthetist," Justice Forrest said.

Peters will be sentenced at some stage after February 25.

This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.